Known telepresence robots generally suffer a variety of issues. They are often very expensive, heavy and difficult to ship, require remote setup often involving skilled information technology assistance, incorporate proprietary hardware and/or software, provide low quality video and voice communications, and require frequent maintenance by skilled technicians.
While there has been a substantial amount of research in the field, mobile telepresence remains very expensive. Moreover, each device and even component devices that make up the telepresence robot are often unique and specific to a particular use, and that has substantially limited their use.
Traditionally, telepresence robots have been controlled using a joystick, a mouse or some similar input device. However, such input requires a human operator to communicating the robot in ways similar to how humans naturally interact with other humans, e.g. using body language, gestures and recognizing emotions.
Furthermore, telepresence robots and systems are typically limited to sensing in two dimensions only, and control of telepresence robots is typically limited to two dimensional controls.
Currently there is no central repository for gesture-based communication that crosses all platforms. Even for a single device, such as the Microsoft Kinect, there are very few common gestures; each interface design defines its own unique set.